Covid 19 in Listowel Co. Kerry and a look back to 2016 Ard Churam Opening

A Curlew photographed by Ita Hannon

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A Quiet Sunday Morning in Lockdown Listowel,  May 31 2020

An almost empty Lidl carpark

John B. Keane Road

Listowel fire station

Upper William Street

St. Patrick's Hall

Carmody's Corner, junction of Charles Street and William Street

William Street

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Here a sign, there a sign, everywhere a Covid sign

Main Street

One of our links with the outside world, the humble post box

Just a few cars in The Square

Entrance to Erskine Childers' Park

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Photos I took at the Official Opening of Ard Churam in 2016

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Made in Stag Cutlery, Listowel

Vincent Doyle found this old one among his souvenirs

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A Word of Caution in Rhyme

An easing of covid restrictions,
Has some people having conniptions,
They fear a new wave,
From being too brave,
Let’s hope that’s just wrongful predictions. 

Our poet, Róisín Meaney, has just published her 17th novel, The Restaurant. If you have enjoyed her little rhymes, you may enjoy her book. She deserves our support in thanks for keeping our spirits up in lockdown.

Listowel in Covid 19, Teampall Bán and St. Michael's in 1970

Mayday, Mayday

Tom Fitzgerald took this photograph in an almost deserted Listowel Town Square at the May Bank  Holiday weekend 2020.

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A Curlew

Ita Hannon took this spectacular photo of a curlew near her home in Beale.

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Teampall Bán

On May 6 2020, I took my permitted walk as far as Teampall Bán. It seemed fitting to visit the mass graves of our ancestors in this time of pestilence.

The sight of mass graves in New York reminded me of the horrors of The Great Hunger. 

Teampall Bán is a famine graveyard, many of its dead tipped into mass graves without benefit of shroud or coffin. Now it stands as a beautifully designed and preserved shrine to a lost generation.

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Leaving Certs. 1970

St. Michael's boys just before their Leaving Cert in 1970. 

Photo shared by Tommy O'Flaherty on Facebook

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Today's Lesson

Nowadays we scuttle away quickly if anyone near us sneezes. But it may not be Covid 19. It could be a reaction to the sun.
This type of sneezing reaction is called photic sneeze reflex and 18 to 35 % of the population suffer from it. It's an inherited trait.
Apparently what happens is that, confronted with very bright light, the messages to the brain get scrambled and the brain thinks that the signal is coming from the nose rather than the eyes so it tries to expel the light by sneezing.

Today's lesson is brought to you from